Our senior design project consisted of engineering the electronic system for our Autonomous Surface Vehicle (ASV). The Robotics Club at the University of Central Florida will participate in the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) and Office of Naval Research’s (ONR) 4th annual international ASV competition over the summer in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The successful completion of the competition involves engineering an autonomous surface vehicle that will meet the challenges of the competition. This involves creating a platform for integrating mechanical and electrical components including computers, sensors, propulsion systems, and mechanical actuation. We will focus on the electrical integration of the platform which will consist of multiple printed circuit boards (PCB) for power management, signal processing, signal integration, and feedback.

The vehicle receives power from 6-Cell lithium polymer batteries and is regulated throughout the vehicle. We are powering a main computer, microcontroller, field programmable gate array (FPGA), integrated circuits (IC’s), a propulsion system, and sensors including a global positioning sensor (GPS), compass, and vision system. The system has the ability to connect and disconnect from shore power like a laptop enabling it to operate continuously out of water on an AC to 24 VDC power supply. This allows the vehicle to switch between battery power and shore power without the need to shutdown the system while swapping the batteries. The power system regulates power throughout the vehicle by using multiple buck converters. The system has switches connected to relays to control power to various parts of the vehicle.

This year we have integrated a microcontroller on our main PCB. The microcontroller is responsible for some of the feedback from the system including battery monitoring and the current state of the vehicle. We have the ability to view system vitals with an on-board LCD screen and remote LCD screen via wireless transmission. The FPGA is responsible for the main signal processing and acts as the intermediary link between the computer and motor control systems. For example, the vehicle has the capability of switching between autonomous control through the computer or remote control from an operator. These signals are multiplexed inside the FPGA and sent to the motor controllers.

Other circuitry required by the rules of the competition includes a mechanical emergency stop system. This is for safety reasons and mechanically disconnects power to any moving parts on the vehicle.